“Satellite Girl and Milk Cow” and 4 More Surprising Features Worth Your Time

It’s a tale as old as time: boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy turns into milk cow and falls in love with South Korea’s first satellite.

The story of Satellite Girl and Milk Cow is, to say the least, out of this world. Pun completely intended. And yet, the odd love story resonates even without taking its fantastical elements into consideration. Written and directed by Hyeong-yoon Jang, it’s at its heart a story of a heartbroken boy and a lonely girl who find each other under odd circumstances.

The World of Satellite Girl and Milk Cow

First and foremost, Il-ho — our heroine — is actually quite real. Or, more specifically, her satellite form is. KITSAT-1 was launched in 1992, with the purpose of conducting audiovisual experiments and taking photos of Earth. In the world of the film, KITSAT-1 continues to do this, eventually discovering beautiful music that it wants to learn more about. And so, it hurtles to Earth to explore… and becomes a robot girl in the process.

Meanwhile, young musician Kyung-chun discovers that his girlfriend is seeing someone else, and subsequently turns into a milk cow. And, all things considered, that’s not completely unheard of in this world. A magical power turns heartbroken people into animals, who are then hunted for their livers. Kyung-chun has remained under the radar since then, but KITSAT-1 — now going under the name Il-ho — searches him out. With help from a magical roll of toilet paper named Merlin.

The logic of Satellite Girl and Milk Cow is bizarre, but you eventually find yourself along for the ride. And then, when Il-ho and Kyung-chun begin falling for each other as the world begins to close in around them, you will find yourself rooting for a farm animal and a piece of space junk to fall in love. We’d say “for the first time” but we don’t judge.

More Animation only on VRV!

If you enjoy Satellite Girl and Milk Cow and want more inventive, fun animation to watch, we’ve got plenty of exclusives available to add to your queue:

The Rabbi’s Cat: We know our cats love to talk to us, but the title pet of this French film has them all beat. After eating a parrot, a rabbi’s cat learns to speak. But when the rabbi tries to train his pet in the ways of the Torah, the cat decides he deserves a bar mitzvah — and it all goes off with exactly as many hitches and you might guess.

Patema Inverted: From Yasuhiro Yoshiura, the creator behind Time of Eve, this 2013 sci-fi drama is a matter of gravity. In the future, a girl named Patema from an underground society falls into the world below (or, rather, above), and strikes up a friendship with a boy named Age. The two use their inverted gravities to explore together, but there’s more to their differences than meets the eye. And Patema and her society may be in danger.

A Cat in Paris: The story of a literal cat burglar! A striped cat named Dino spends his days with a little girl named Zoé, and his nights with a burglar named Nico. The cat’s two worlds collide when Zoé’s mother, a police officer, begins to piece together clues about Nico and his next job.

Mind Game: Based on the manga of the same name, Mind Game comes to us from Devilman Crybaby director Masaaki Yuasa. His directorial debut leads us through the psychedelic adventures of Nishi, a would-be comic book artist.

There’s plenty more animation, live-action entertainment, and more to see on VRV Select!

Kara Dennison is your favorite psychoanalytical nerd princess, with credits at Crunchyroll, Viewster, Sartorial Geek, We Are Cult, and beyond. Her works have been published by Titan Books, Obverse Books, and more. Up next is "Black Archive #21 - Heaven Sent," coming out this July. She tweets @RubyCosmos and blogs at karadennison.com